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Still waiting for an answer from Drew about Garrett, Sven joins in with the others circling the Silas mound.

Drew "I only met the steward man on the day we were hired. He seemed pleasant enough, into books and his studies. The mage Knievel gave us all the creeps but he promised good pay and well, we all needed the money. The dwarf was the steward's hard man.

They thought the barrow would hold dark secrets, to the grave and afterlife. They hoped to conduct strange rituals and become ordained acolytes."

Sven visibly shudders.

“That sounds pretty awful. Why would anyone crave power so much they would be willing to sacrifice everything for it?”

“I hope you find the company of this group much less……creepy.”

Orgoth

Orgoth is good with a wider circle before heading in.

Gerdal

"Let's make a slightly wider circle and see what's there. I'm sure the baboons would speak to me if we wish to. Don't worry about their angry disposition, they will calm down as I approach. Some gifts would be in order though, if we can spare any food?"

Again......the idea here is to get a lay of the land. We will NOT be checking out any other mounds at this time, we just want to know where the closest ones to the Silas mound are located.

Sven leads the team north around the eastern side of the baboon mound, keeping a safe distance away from the aggressive chest pounders.

From there they will walk north/northwest to see if any more mounds lie in that unexplored area.

Once they are parallel with mound 15, they will head east again, cutting due south about 60 feet past the baboon mound, where they will travel 7 more hexes south before turning due west. 2 hexes past the spade mound, they will head northwest again, trying to fill in as much of the unexplored map as they can before heading back to the Silas mound again.

That should give us a look at the Nergal mound to see if anything has stirred there since we left last time.

Orgoth

Orgoth will keep alert as they move, looking for potential threats.

Will edit this post with an update. Checking Sven's directions and rolling getting lost or eaten in the mist ...

Have edited for your notes Baboon mound is no 24 not 22.

So my interpreting the directions would approximately follow a path as follows:

Let me know if that is fairly accurate.

ok. Got it.

With the afternoon wearing on, the group decide the recce the surrounding area, looking for other potential mounds that might provide alternative entrances into the Barrowmaze labyrinth.

Traversing the foot of mound 24 (tagged as baboon mound), you steer clear of the aggravated primates who hold the little round top. Several stones thrown splatter behind your footsteps, thrown haphazardly by the hooting herd as you retreat back in to the mist. Taking a northerly direction, the scouts of the group just a little ahead point out the rise of a mound to your left (23) and shortly after another mound to the northeast. (22).

Taking the second one, you scout around. The mound is not as high as the others, probably cresting at 30'ft but it stretches in a long narrow cross shape. At the foot of the cross are two stone doors panelled with an oak veneer and iron hinges. The doors have been torn away from an arched stone frame and broken into pieces. A 10'ft square entrance porch leads inside where another wooden door hangs on broken hinges, slightly ajar.

To the left side, (where the horizontal crosspiece would be), another stone archway has been made in the barrow. This is much smaller and not a door but formerly held a stained glass window. That has been vandalised and broken through. A small tree poking limbs through the remains of the leaden panes. The right side of the mound where another window might be is covered over with earth and Moor grasses.

actions please

Sven whispers his thoughts softly.

“A cross shaped mound is interesting, but it has clearly already been entered. Let’s move on. We can discuss our thoughts about these new areas once we are finished with our walkabout.”

He urges the group to take a lap around the next mound before heading south.

Orgoth

Orgoth continues around the next mound.

Isvand continues, focusing on the terrain around the mound.

Gerdal keeps on walking as per Sven's suggestions.

"Really interesting this one. I wonder what this might have been? Looks almost like a home of some kind? partly submerged into the ground."

The group can climb over the Cross Barrow (22), locating the main double door and entry porch and the west side arched window. If there is an east window, and you could presume so, it is covered over by earth and shrubbery.

Deciding not to enter and check out the interior, the group move to check out the second mound they discovered. (Burrow 23).

This one has steep sides, a very rounded lump of tall thickets of grass. In several places the incline is interspersed with burrowed holes such as a rabbit warren might appear though these dug-outs are certainly much too large for such a creature to need. A halfling or gnome might comfortable crawl into one of these. There is no obvious human excavation work on this mound or any indication at which point around the mound, an entrance might be located.

actions in regard to this mound.

Orgoth

"I think we should avoid the burrows, something nasty could have made those."

At this pace, I think we should just head into the maze now. We can always investigate a little more each time we come out here.

Sven looks over the several burrows in the mound, whispering. “This might be a good one to investigate sometime. I don’t see any man made excavation yet. Perhaps one of those holes leads the way inside? Let’s come back here before we leave again and sniff around a little more, if we feel up to it.”

With a nagging suspicion that their luck out here in the “meadows of the dead” is about to run out, Sven suggests they head back to the Silas mound now. “We can check to the south of our mound next time, cool?”

BEFORE anyone tries rolling the Silas stone open, Sven urges a second, closer inspection of the entrance by everyone willing. “If someone has found our secret door, they will likely attempt to prevent anyone else from finding it after them. We should be prepared for anything.”

“Smokie! Have a sniff around the area. Can you tell if anyone was here? How many?”

Isvand at Sven's words will attempt to check for traps.


Not sure how we do check for traps rolls - Sometimes the DM wants to do it, since if the player busts their roll, the character wouldn't know that. In any case, it's a 25%

Gerdal keeps a few meters distance from the entrance as Isvand examines the millstone.

"It was bound to happen sooner or later. I just wonder: if this barrow was left undisturbed for so long before we entered it, curious that just weeks after we find our way in, someone else does as well. I think it is safe to assume that whoever is or was in there got tipped off by someone about our expedition."

"In reality though, I don't know how much it matters? It could even play in our favor if someone enters and clashes with the cultists, I guess."

Not sure how we do check for traps rolls - Sometimes the DM wants to do it, since if the player busts their roll, the character wouldn't know that. In any case, it's a 25%

By the book the DM is supposed to roll but I prefer you doing so and then narrating the success or fail. So if you rolled 25% as a success, you could say with confidence, "if there is a trap I have detected it" but rolling 99% you could comment "I am not sure, I didn't detect anything but it could be hidden beyond my perception".